Jumat, Februari 25, 2011

The International Film Music Critics Association announces the winners of its seventh annual awards for excellence in musical scoring in 2010 with John Powell’s score for the animated film HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON topping the list, winning both Film Score of the Year and Best Score for an Animated Film. Alexandre Desplat receives three awards: Best Score for a Drama Film (THE KING’S SPEECH), Best Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film (THE GHOST WRITER) and Composer of the Year.

FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR• HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, music by John Powell

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR• ALEXANDRE DESPLAT

FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR• ALICE IN WONDERLAND – “Alice’s Theme” (Danny Elfman)

Rabu, Februari 23, 2011

Depending on your viewing habits, it’s quite possible that you’ve heard Danny Elfman’s work more often than any other composer. Not only has he scored more than 70 films (including all but two of Tim Burton’s and many of Sam Raimi’s), but he’s also the musical dynamo behind the iconic TV theme tunes of The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives. Away from the screen, Elfman created the music for Cirque du Soleil’s forthcoming LA show Iris and is developing a Broadway musical based on the life of escapologist supreme Harry Houdini with The Social Network uber-scribe Aaron Sorkin. We caught up with the amiable Californian on a recent flying visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, where Elfman is composing the score for one of the park’s new rides, the playfully spooky ‘Mystic Manor’, which is due to make its debut in early 2013.

This is the first time you’ve scored a theme park ride. What attracted you to the project?
Well, growing up as a young adult, going to Disneyland in LA, the Haunted Mansion was my favourite ride. So, being asked to participate in something like this, something that maybe our children, grandchildren might be part of – I love the idea of how long it could potentially be around. That even after I’m gone, there’ll still be generations enjoying this work. That to me is a great thing and an honour.

How do you keep your creativity?Well, [laughs] I don’t know. I hope that I do keep my creativity. I don’t have any magic formula. I was recently a juror at the Venice Film Festival. I’m having drinks with the president of the jury, who’s Quentin Tarantino, and we were discussing that problem, that dilemma of the terrifying feeling that every time you start a piece of work is like lowering a bucket into a well and you have no idea if you’re going to find water, because you don’t know if that well is ten feet deep or a mile. There’s no answer to that except keep lowering that bucket until you hear a splash.

Have you ever had a supernatural experience?I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I’ve tried. The director Guillermo Del Toro and myself, we even rented a haunted room in London that was sure to provide ghosts. And we took turns sitting in a room alone with the lights off as part of the dare, waiting for something to happen... and nothing did. I keep hoping though.

Tim Burton, Danny Elfman and others involved in the its production offer a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an hour-long documentary DVD included exclusively in THE DANNY ELFMAN & TIM BURTON 25TH ANNIVERSARY MUSIC BOX.

On September 12, 2010, legendary director Tim Burton and celebrated composer Danny Elfman sat down in the control room of London's renowned Air Lyndhurst Studios to discuss their 25-year collaboration. The results, an exclusive DVD— "A Conversation With Danny Elfman & Tim Burton" —provides a fascinating glimpse into the minds behind the movies and music as they discuss every film and score in their storied collaboration. From the fear and excitement of their first feature Pee-wee's Big Adventure, through the challenges of Batman, through the struggles and ultimate triumph of Alice In Wonderland, these two men reminisce about a partnership that has spanned a quarter century and redefined how we listen to movies.

With humor, candor, and insight, Burton and Elfman remember the creation of classics like Beetlejuice, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands. As an added bonus, the DVD also includes a featurette on the creation of the songs for Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT RECEIVES 7 INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS’ 2010 AWARD NOMINATIONS, INCLUDING TWO FOR FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

FEBRUARY 11, 2011 – The International Film Music Critics Association announces its list of nominations for excellence in musical scoring in 2010, with French composer Alexandre Desplat leading the field with 7 nods including THE KING’S SPEECH (3 nominations) and THE GHOST WRITER (4 nominations) for Film Score of the Year. Also nominated in this category are John Powell’s HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (5 nominations), Daft Punk’s score to TRON: LEGACY (3 nominations) and Hans Zimmer’s INCEPTION (3 nominations).

Desplat, who also wrote the nominated score to HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1, is short-listed for Composer of the Year along with John Powell (HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON); James Newton Howard (SALT, THE LAST AIRBENDER, NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS); Danny Elfman (ALICE IN WONDERLAND) and Hans Zimmer (INCEPTION).

2010 Film Categories

FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

• THE GHOST WRITER, music by Alexandre Desplat
• HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, music by John Powell
• INCEPTION, music by Hans Zimmer
• THE KING’S SPEECH, music by Alexandre Desplat
• TRON: LEGACY, music by Daft Punk

Jumat, Februari 11, 2011

Walt Disney and state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group Co. plan to jointly open the first Disneyland Park in China in Shanghai. The Shanghai government is spending 40 billion yuan on infrastructure for the park, expected to open in 2015, in the city’s Pudong area, according to the Shanghai Daily.

“We’ll probably go to Shanghai Disneyland instead of coming to Hong Kong in the future because the commute from Beijing is shorter,” said Zhang Wensheng, 40, who went to the Hong Kong park for the first time last week with his six-year- old son. “I heard the park in Shanghai will be much bigger in size too.”

Hong Kong Disneyland, 47-percent owned by Burbank, California-based Walt Disney, will fight back later this year with the unveiling of “Toy Story Land,” based on the exploits of toy spaceman Buzz Lightyear and his cowboy friend Woody. The latest film in the series was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Disney is hiring musician Danny Elfman to compose music for another attraction “Mystic Point,” which along with “Grizzly Gulch” will be ready by 2014.

Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, and others involved in the production of THE DANNY ELFMAN & TIM BURTON 25TH ANNIVERSARY MUSIC BOX offer a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of DANSE MACABRE, a 264-page book included in this project.

This meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated book features a foreword by Johnny Depp, as well as rare photos, stories, and interviews from the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes of this classic music—from the early days of Elfman's band Oingo Boingo to the recent blockbuster film, Alice In Wonderland.

This comprehensive 10"x10" keepsake, fine linen-wrapped hardbound book with gold foil stamping is produced exclusively for this collection. DANSE MACABRE: 25 YEARS OF DANNY ELFMAN AND TIM BURTON is written by acclaimed film-music journalist Jeff Bond and designed by Grammy-winning designer Matt Taylor.

Over 80 actors, writers, directors, composers, editors, singers, and others were interviewed to paint a compelling picture of this historic teaming of Elfman and Burton. Interviewed are such collaborators and peers as:

There was a reason why i picked this score as one of the top 20 of 2010 in my view and it's because Eflman's score is so engaging, so melodic and not to mention really exciting.The lengthy running time of over 71 minutes which includes Moby's songs don't feel like a very long album because of it's pace and it doesn't wear out it's welcome. It's a perfectly done album with the right amount of music and very good sequencing as well.

It's never too late to review a great score and album and The Next Three Days is just that. It's the quintessential Danny Elfman action score. Like The Kingdom and Proof of Life before them, this is one is a true standout of his recent works and I really hope he does continue this trend in his future scores.

Reissues are hard to explain to people who aren’t aware of them, but sometimes it seems like the appeal of soundtracks – old or new – is harder to explain. As a professional, we invite you: why soundtracks?

Simply put – I love them! While my friends were listening to grunge music and West Coast rap in the late 80’s and early 90’s I turned my attention to the likes of John Williams, Danny Elfman and Danny Goldsmith. There are quite a number of soundtracks, when, upon their initial release, had lots of music left off for some reason or another. Now, many years later, I am honored to have the opportunity to revisit these treasures and share with my fellow soundtrack fans this extra music!

Earlier this week, Richard Kraft offered this startling revelation: "Jerry Goldsmith once told me that if he was ever making a movie, the composer he would choose to score it would be John Barry — because no one else was better at creating music that best captured the heart of a film." Veteran keyboard player Mike Lang, whose piano work graced many Barry scores, said "His music spoke from his heart and bonded with film as no other."

We have lost one of the true giants of the last 50 years of film music. But the legacy of John Barry — that extraordinary canon of themes, scores and sounds unique to the man and his times — remains. Future generations, just discovering Barry's music, will envy us; they will only be able to imagine how exciting it was to hear a new John Barry score for a film, a television show, a stage musical or an album. How lucky we were.

I must commend La La Land, Neil S. Bulk, Dan Goldwasser and M.V. Gerhard for providing a superb reissue of this classic score. The score was re-mastered by James Nelson from Shawn Murphy’s first generation three-track digital mixes and the sound quality is pristine and excellent – a most welcome development given the poor recording of the original. In Batman Returns we see a significant maturation of style as well as more complex and sophisticated orchestration. Elfman not only builds upon the foundation he laid in Batman but introduces several new themes from which he intertwines and plays against each other with extraordinary effect. While the original film was all about Batman, in this sequel, the villains are more prominently featured and the score reflects this. The themes of the three principal characters are as much a part of them as their very sinews, and the score is perfectly attenuated to the film’s imagery. I highly recommend this score and believe it to be one of the best efforts in Elfman’s canon.